Great Britain’s divers bring Team GB’s Rio quota places up to ten as Tom Daley and Dan Goodfellow win 10m synchro bronze at the Rio World Cup, while a crash ends any hopes of a first four-man bobsleigh World Championship medal for 77 years. Here’s our review of the last 24 hours.
Tom Daley and his new synchro partner Dan Goodfellow picked up an impressive bronze medal in the 10m synchro on their way to securing Team GB an Olympic quota place at the Rio World Cup.
World bronze medallist Daley and synchro partner Goodfellow looked confident throughout the final as they sat in a quota place position throughout.
The Brits finished in third place with 446.40 points to earn a bronze medal and a Rio quota place.
There was more good news in the 3m springboard as Freddie Woodward secured Great Britain’s tenth Olympic quota place by reaching the semi-final in 18th place with a score of 393.40.
Chris Mears just missed out after finishing in 21st place with 390.40 points, while Georgia Ward was eighth in the 10m platform final, her first international showpiece.
Geraint Thomas sealed overall victory at the Volta ao Algarve for the second year in succession after previous leader Tony Martin's challenge collapsed on a final stage won by Alberto Contador.
Martin and Thomas were separated by just three seconds in first and second place in the general classification at the start of the day, but the German was dropped on the stage's penultimate climb and finished more than 18 minutes down.
That meant Thomas had to defend what was now a virtual lead on the 2.9km climb to the summit finish on Alto do Malhao, and he did so by crossing the line 28 seconds behind Contador in fifth place.
Thomas told teamsky.com: "It's always nice to be on the podium and get a win. I don't get to do it very often, so I certainly enjoy that."
A crash ended Great Britain’s four-man bob’s hopes of a first medal in 77 years at the World Championships in Igls, Austria, on Sunday.
The GB1 crew, piloted by Lamin Deen, had high hopes of ending the wait after going into the final two runs of the competition sitting in fourth place, just 0.02 seconds off bronze.
But their push to make up time on the teams above them cost them dear as their sled rolled over out of corner nine and careered down the rest of the course on its side.
Team sources confirmed Deen and team-mates Ben Simons, Bruce Tasker and Joel Fearon suffered only "bumps and bruises" in the accident, which ruled them out of the top-20 finish required for a fourth run.
Kate Richardson-Walsh insists it is still all systems for Rio 2016 despite Great Britain's hockey women losing their six-match series with Australia thanks to defeat in the final match.
Heading into Sunday's clash the two sides were locked at 1-1 from their opening five games, having drawn three straight times.
And Australia signalled their intent right from the word go as they raced into a 3-0 lead after 35 minutes thanks to goals from Georgina Morgan, Emily Smith and Grace Stewart.
However, Great Britain refused to lie down and two quick-fire goals from Sophie Bray and Joie Leigh saw them trail by just one strike.
But they were unable to find a leveller as hosts Australia took the series 2-1, although Richardson-Walsh believes there is plenty for Great Britain to be proud about Down Under.
"We can take a lot of positives from the series," she said. "That was probably our best performance today.
"We've not put in our best displays in the first five games so we can take from this that if we were able to stay level with Australia when not playing our best, hopefully when we are at our best we can beat them.
"The next six months are really busy. We have lots of games so we'll be match ready for the Olympics.”
Ross Whyte has rounded off Team GB’s Youth Olympic Games in style by winning a silver medal in the curling mixed doubles on the last day of competition at Lillehammer 2016.
The 17-year-old, playing alongside Yu Han of China, went down 11-5 to the Japan-Switzerland pairing of Yako Matsuzawa and Philipp Hoesli having earlier beaten Sasaki Honoka (Japan) and Tyler Tardi (Canada) 6-3 in the semi-final.
Whyte, who skippered the mixed team rink to the quarter-finals, wins Team GB’s fifth medal of the Games following Madi Rowlands’ gold and bronze in the ski halfpipe and slopestyle, Ashleigh Pittaway’s gold in the skeleton and Kelsea Purchall’s bronze in yesterday’s monobob. Whyte said: “Getting to stand up on the podium for Team GB is a really incredible feeling.
“The other pair played really well today and although we tried hard they were just too strong for us.
Meanwhile, monobob bronze medallist Kelsea Purchall had the honour of carrying the union flag into the Closing Ceremony of the Lillehammer 2016 Youth Olympic Games.
Purchall, who was selected from Team GB’s 16 strong athlete delegation by Chef de Mission Adam Pengilly, won Team GB’s fourth medal of the Games with the team collecting five in total from their time in Lillehammer.
She said: “The whole experience has been really overwhelming. Everyone on team has got on really well, been supportive of each other and performed fantastically – it’s just been brilliant fun.
“I think I’ll remember the people the most. I didn’t expect to become friends with so many people from different sports and nations and it highlights what a fantastic stepping-stone this event is up to senior level.”
Sportsbeat 2016